Hurricane Irene: Ron Paul

29 August 2011 |permalink | email article

You have to conclude, based on the facts, that Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican candidate for president, lives in a parallel universe.
Even before Hurricane Irene made landfall President Obama declared a federal emergency for Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia, clearing the way for federal financing and response to the hurricane.
What was clear was the federal government’s determination to avoid its disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.
But Paul told NBC News Friday that “there’s no magic about” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), He said he doesn’t see the need for a federal response to Hurricane Irene. “We should be like 1900, we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960,” he said on a New Hampshire campaign stop. He regarded FEMA as a great contribution to deficit financing.”
Paul’s comments, music to the ears of the cost cutters like Republican presidential candidates like Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann, who never miss an opportunity to attack the relevance of the federal government, notably in catastrophic times.
Paul Krugman is dismayed that political opposition has already crippled fiscal policy; instead of helping to create jobs, the federal government is pulling back, acting as a drag on output and employment.
When Obama addresses the country soon after Labor Day he will have a new arrow in his quiver – a compelling argument that Hurricane Irene can create a huge infrastructure stimulus package putting millions of Americans back to work.
Read ‘em and weep
In his new book, Dick Cheney writes, “after I finished the president asked, “ Does anyone here agree with the vice president? Not a single hand went up around the room.” Cheney was obsessed with punishing Syria and Iran and fought for destroying a reactor in the Syrian desert. Call Vice the “outlier in chief.”

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